Natural conversation storytelling system

ABSTRACT

The present application discloses a multi-media interactive story-telling system that provides natural conversational interactions between a human user and a contributor who appears in multi-media recordings. The multi-media interactive story-telling system includes an intake device for recording interview sessions in which a contributor tells a life story about her life experience. The contributor may rely on a script when creating the life story. The multi-media interactive story-telling system further comprises storage devices for storing the recorded interview sessions and processors for organizing the recorded interview sessions. The multi-media interactive story-telling system further comprises an interactive device for retrieving and playing a recorded interview session in response to a query from a user.

FIELD OF THE SYSTEM

The present disclosure relates generally to human-machine interactivesystems, and more specifically to a storytelling system designed toconduct natural conversation with a human user as a contributor whoappears in a multi-media recording.

BACKGROUND OF THE SYSTEM

There has been a trend for people to spend more of their time in thedigital world, replacing real-world face-to-face interaction withdigital interaction (e.g. texts, tweets, email, Facebook, Instagram, andthe like). For many people, even a live telephone conversation isavoided in favor of digital messaging. This trend, along with recentimprovements in storage capacity and the processing power of personaldevices, makes it easier for people to record and document their dailylives, and to build up repositories of multi-media data files, such astext posts, photos, and videos. People are sharing these types ofmulti-media data files through uploading, selecting, clicking, andpassive viewing. Existing technologies, such as social media websitesand applications, have become standard methods for a person to curatedata about their life and share their stories with their friends,family, and social circle. People also use social media to shareinformation about a subject domain, which they may have interest orexpertise in, when they would like to contribute their knowledge oropinion. As contributors, they primarily use discussion boards,text-based exchange or user interface to interact and engage with thosewho are interested.

In another technological area, intelligent human-machine interactivesystems, such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana and the like. These systems arevoice-activated, natural language processors that first interpret auser's brief general query and then search designated databases toreturn a single result. The query is usually task-based and limited to afew specific functions. The returned result is often text-based and thenconverted into an audio clip to be played to the user. These systemsfall short in that they lack the ability to simulate a face-to-face,query-based conversation with another human being.

In these systems, voice queries are converted into text and theconverted text is used to search metadata associated with responses.Responses may comprise an answer to an inquiry or a computer program toperform an identified task. The metadata in these systems are carefullyengineered and tested before being released to customers, and customerscannot change the metadata stored in these commercially availablesystems. These systems do not provide rich, user-generated metadata tobe searched for highly specific content, other than date, place, objectrecognition or face recognition. For example, these systems do not allowsearches for opinion, emotion, experience, activity, etc.

These trends have reduced personal and direct communication, which canhave a limiting effect on civilization. Through conversation, humanbeings can quickly communicate complex concepts, emotions, events, etc.by breaking them down into short story segments. By asking questions, wecan rapidly redirect the conversation, build connections, and learn newinformation. This unique ability can be lost when employing asynchronousand one way digital communication.

However, in-person conversations or real-time video calls are restrictedby time, social circle, and location. A person would not be able toconverse with their deceased ancestors or a celebrity idol they nevermet before. A person would not be able to facetime a friend who istraveling in a remote region and does not have easy access to theInternet but wants to share their travel experience. While our world isincreasingly interconnected across large distances, it is difficult tomaintain face-to-face connections, let alone pass down generations ofhuman history. When the individuals who lived through an event are nolonger with us to tell their stories, those stories are lost. Reading acontemporaneous text or secondary source is not the same as listening toor getting to know a real person, to see them, to listen to the storyfrom the source.

SUMMARY OF THE SYSTEM

Accordingly, it is an objective of this present disclosure to teach anatural conversation storytelling system (NCSS) that allows contributorsto contribute to a content database and users to ask questions of thecontent database through voice-activated commands. The content databaseis a dynamic multilayered database, and comprises videos, supplementalphotos, documents, and other media files. The videos are multi-mediarecordings captured by contributors answering structured questions fromscripts and edited by the contributors or others. In the contentdatabase, multi-media files are automatically transcribed and turnedinto data files. All data may be, for example, stored in the systemthrough cloud services that can be accessed and replayed instantly inany order through voice-activated commands from an inquirer interestedin some specific content or specific contributors.

The system disclosed herein employs a method of navigating large mediaarchives through a conversational interface. The system provides anintuitive interface for contributors to record and upload mediaresponses, as well as a second, inquiry user interface to collect userqueries and host real-world, face-to-face conversation, leveragingmachine learning algorithms to interact with collected contributorresponses and facilitate natural conversation between a machine and ahuman being. As multiple contributors add content to the contentdatabase and multiple users engage the system in natural conversation,the system automatically identifies metadata such as places, people,objects, themes, emotions, sentence structures, etc. that repeat acrossmultiple inquires and responses and stores the metadata in the contentdatabase. As users add responses and inquiries to the system and thesystem continually retrains its machine learning component to improvethe accuracy of the natural-language search and retrieval system, theend result is an intelligent interactive video platform for life-likeand real-time conversational interaction between contributors andinquirers.

The system disclosed herein provides an intuitive interface for users torecord and upload media responses, leveraging machine learningalgorithms applied to multiple users to automatically improve thenatural language understanding. The system merges the technologies ofdata management with the art of face to face communication. The datacomponents of a contributor's recording and the naturallanguage-facilitated, artificial intelligence search and retrieval allowpeople to interact in natural conversation with a pre-recorded humancontributor. A contributor can record their experience, stories,opinion, etc. in a multi-media format and store the pre-recorded digitalfiles as “ContributorFiles.” Through ContributorFiles, a contributor canhave a conversation with a user, when the contributor is not present orno longer alive.

In the present system, ContributorFiles can be captured through amultilayered recording system, stored in a database (e.g. cloudstorage), organized through automatically and manually capturedmetadata, and retrieved and played in response to user inquiries.

In one embodiment, a multi-media interactive story-telling systemaccording to the present disclosure comprises an intake deviceconfigured to record one or more interview sessions in which one or morecontributors create interactive stories by answering questions definedin a script. The multi-media interactive story-telling system furthercomprises storage devices for storing the one or more recorded interviewsessions of the one or more contributor, and an interactive deviceconfigured to retrieve and play a recorded session of a contributorstored on the storage devices in response to a query from a user. Thequery is interpreted as being directed to an interactive story of acontributor and the recorded session retrieved by the interactive devicecorrelates to the interactive story of the contributor to which thequery is directed.

In one embodiment, improvement of the correlation between the recordedsession retrieved by the interactive device and the life story of theone or more contributors to which the query is directed is achievedthrough machine learning. In one embodiment, the recorded interviewsessions may be edited by the one or more contributors before beingcommitted to the storage devices, or augmented by photos, documents ormedia files before being committed to the storage devices. The one ormore recorded interview sessions may be transcribed and one or morekeywords may be extracted from the transcripts of the one or moretranscribed interview sessions for cataloguing and retrieving. Thetranscripts may be stored as metadata of the one or more transcribedinterview sessions. The transcripts of the one or more transcribedinterview sessions may be stored in a natural language database.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the one or more keywords may be stored as metadata of the one or moreinterview sessions. The metadata further comprises location dataautomatically retained by the intake device during the one or moreinterview sessions and information manually input by the contributors.The one or more recorded interview sessions may be automaticallytranscribed by speech-to-text translation.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the one or more contributors create life stories based on pre-defined orbespoke scripts. The scripts can be drafted to address a life story, apersonal experience, an opinion or a subject domain familiar to one ofthe contributors. In one embodiment, different scripts are created fordifferent applications of the multi-media interactive story-tellingsystem. Different applications of the multi-media interactivestory-telling system may include dating services, educational programs,family legacies, historic documentary, medical testimonials, communitystories, executive hiring, FAQ services, customer services, trainingservices, mentoring services, financial advice, advice lines,professional advice, archival services and other services which benefitfrom interactive question-and-answering.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the scripts comprise questions to be answered by the one or morecontributors during the interview sessions. The intake device may beconfigured to present follow-up questions based on answers from the oneor more contributors.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the one or more recorded sessions may include filler segments in whichthe one or more contributors are speaking pleasantries or in a listeningpose. A filler segment in which the one or more contributors arespeaking pleasantries may be retrieved by the interactive device forplaying back in response to a query from the user or when a pleasantryfrom the user is asked. In one embodiment, the filler segment of thecontributor in a listening pose may be used in between queries of theuser.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the interactive device may be further configured to retrieve and play amulti-media file as a response to a query or along with the recordedsession being retrieved by the interactive device. The multi-media filemay be retrieved from a local device, over a network, or from theinternet. The multi-media file and the recorded sessions along with thephotos, documents or media files may be retrieved as a response to aquery. The one or more recorded interview sessions may be divided intomultiple segments using markers and separate metadata is created foreach segment.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive story-telling system,the storage devices may be locally connected storage hardware orcloud-based storage devices. The interactive device may be configured tocache recorded sessions that correspond to commonly asked queries.

In one embodiment, an interview intake device for a multi-mediastory-telling system disclosed herein comprises a display device fordisplaying questions defined in a script, and recording devices forrecording one or more interview sessions in which one or morecontributors answer the questions displayed on the display device. Theinterview intake device for a multi-media story-telling system furthercomprises processors configured to generate metadata for the one or morerecorded interview sessions for cataloguing and retrieval. Theprocessors may be further configured to generate follow-up questions.

The one or more recorded interview sessions may be automaticallytranscribed and transcripts are used as part of the metadata of the oneor more interview sessions. The metadata of the one or more interviewsessions may comprise one or more keywords extracted from thetranscripts, timestamps and other data automatically processed by theprocessors during the one or more interview sessions, and informationmanually input by the contributors.

In one embodiment of the interview intake device, different scripts maybe prepared for different applications of the multi-media story-tellingsystem. In one embodiment, the interview intake device may be furtherconfigured to record filler segments in which the contributors arespeaking pleasantries or in a listening pose. The processors may beconfigured to combine a recorded interview session with the transcript,auxiliary media files, and metadata into a single ContributorFile.

In one embodiment of the multi-media interactive device disclosedherein, the multi-media interactive device comprises an input devicethat features a user interface. The input device is configured toreceive a query from a user. The multi-media interactive device furthercomprises an output device for playing back recorded interview sessions.The interview sessions may be recorded by one or more contributors andin each interview session the one or more contributors answers aquestion defined in a script. The multi-media interactive device alsocomprises processors configured to retrieve a recorded interview sessionin response to the query. In the recorded interview session, the answerfrom the one or more contributors correlates to the query. Theprocessors may be configured to retrieve the recorded interview sessionin which the question the one or more contributors answers matches thequery.

In one embodiment, a list of candidate contributors may be presented inthe user interface on the input device of the multi-media interactivedevice for the user to select one contributor from the list, andinterview sessions featuring the selected contributor are retrieved andplayed back. In one embodiment, the list of candidate contributors maybe generated based on common interests between the user and eachcandidate contributor. The list of candidate contributors may begenerated based on one or more of the following factors: popularity,subject domain, keywords, talents, experience, and names. In oneembodiment, the list of candidate contributors may be generated based onthe emotion of the user detected by the multi-media interactive device.

In one embodiment, the input device may be a touch-screen, a microphone,a smart glass, holographic display, or a virtual assistant device. Inone embodiment, the processors are configured to retrieve an auxiliaryfile along with the interview session for playing back.

The present disclosure also teaches a method of hosting an interactivestory-telling conversation between a user and a contributor selected bythe user. The method comprises receiving from the user a selection ofthe contributor and retrieving a first filler recording segment of thecontributor, wherein the filler segment features the contributorspeaking a pleasantry. When a query from the user is received and thequery is addressed to the contributor, the query is processed. Arecording segment featuring the contributor that provides an appropriateanswer to the query is identified. In the recording segment, thecontributor narrates his or her personal experience or opinion. Therecording segment is the retrieved and played to the user. After therecording segment is finished, the user may pose a follow-up questionand the follow-up question is processed in a similar manner. In oneembodiment, the recording segment may be accompanied by other mediafiles or documents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features of the present disclosure will become readilyapparent upon further review of the following specification anddrawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the views. Moreover, components in thedrawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead beingplaced upon clearly illustrating the principles of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an exemplary setup for a contributor torecord an interview session.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a natural conversation between an inquirerand a contributor who appears in a multi-media recording.

FIG. 3 is a flow-chart illustrating a method of building aContributorFile database.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary multi-mediainteractive story-telling system.

FIGS. 5A-5C illustrate a user interface of the multi-media interactivestory-telling system for a contributor to record and store multi-mediaContributorFiles in an embodiment of the system.

FIGS. 6A-6C is an exemplary illustration of a user interface of themulti-media interactive story-telling system for an inquirer to engagein a natural conversation with a selected contributor.

FIGS. 7A-7C illustrate an exemplary script mode in an embodiment of thesystem.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating the generation of aContributorFile by a contributor.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the step ofidentifying a contributor response to a query in an embodiment of thesystem.

FIG. 10 is an example computer system for implementing an embodiment ofthe system.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an intake device in an embodiment of thesystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The system is described more fully hereinafter with reference to theaccompanying drawings. The system may, however, be embodied in manydifferent forms and should not be construed as limited to the examplesset forth herein. Rather, these examples are provided so that thisdisclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey thescope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.

In the present disclosure, a multi-media interactive story-tellingsystem creates a digital story-telling database that can receive, store,and organize rich source materials for natural conversationalinteractions between a human user and a contributor who appears in arecorded interview session. Rich source materials include digitalrecordings, audio or video. Rich source materials may also includeauxiliary files such as photos, documents, audio clips, etc. Rich sourcematerials may further include metadata derived from storytellingnarratives, opinion, analysis, events, places, people and subjectcontent, which are interrelated. In the present disclosure, such richsource materials are referred to as “ContributorFiles.”

The exemplary multi-media interactive story-telling system disclosedherein enables natural conversation between a human user and the digitalimage of a contributor. The story-telling system provides a userinterface to allow a contributor to input audio and video responses to aset of pre-defined or customized questions, which is referred to as“script” herein. In addition to the audio and video recordings, acontributor can choose, on their own or upon suggestions from thesystem, other media files such as photos, videos, text, etc. to augmentthe stored audio and video recordings. These auxiliary files may beretrieved from local storage devices, social media websites, or sourceson the Internet. These auxiliary files are used to enrich thestory-telling of the contributor and are part of the ContributorFilecreated by the contributor and stored by the story-telling system.

The exemplary multi-media interactive story-telling system is userdriven and user friendly. An untrained user can author or contributetheir own digital content using an intuitive and automated interviewsystem to create video, audio, and other multimedia content. When a userwishes to use the multi-media interactive story-telling system, heselects a contributor that is of interest to him. In one embodiment, alist of contributors may be presented to him for selecting. The list ofcontributors may be determined based on subject matter, user preference,history of past user selections, etc. The user can place inquiries intothe contributor's database, and media files are retrieved and playedback in response to the user's inquiries. When the retrieved media filesare played, the story-telling system creates the appearance of acontinuous conversation between the inquirer and the contributor whoappears in the media file. The user can enter inquiries in a real-timesequence. The inquiries may be input as text into an input device. Theinquiries may be voiced into a microphone and captured and transcribedinto text by the multi-media interactive story-telling system. Thestory-telling system provides seamless question and answer engagementbetween the user/inquirer and the contributor. The contributor appearsin pre-recorded responses and/or other multi-media files.

Retrieved responses may combine multiple media formats and files. Forexample, a question such as “tell me about your vacation in Italy” cantrigger a video response in which the contributor tells a story abouther vacation in Italy. Along with the video response, photos and othermedia files may be displayed to augment the video response while it isbeing played. These photos and media files may be tagged with the timeand place of the Italian vacation of the contributor. They may beorganized into the ContributorFile of the video response when the videoresponse is first produced or added later to the ContributorFile. Afterthe first video response, additional responses are retrieved and playedin response to follow-up questions posed by the inquirer. For example,in the video response the contributor mentions a visit to the Colosseumand that triggers a follow-up question from the inquirer about Rome. Inresponse to the follow-up question about Rome, a second video responseis retrieved. The second video response may be tagged “vacation,”“Italy,” and “Rome” to allow fast retrieval.

In one embodiment, the second video response may be retrieved and cachedwhen the first video response is played based on a machine learningalgorithm. In the machine learning algorithm, past patterns of inquiriesmay be studied. If a follow-up question appears to follow anotherquestion regularly or most likely or always, the machine learningalgorithm may decide to retrieve the response to the follow-up questionand store the response locally when the video response to the originalquestion is played to improve system response time and improve thefluency of the conversation between the inquirer and the digital versionof the contributor.

In an exemplary multi-media interactive story-telling system, acontributor starts with building up a content database. The contentdatabase comprises ContributorFiles. A ContributorFile is a multi-mediadigital file plus the accompanying metadata. A ContributorFile may beaccompanied by auxiliary files such as photos, audio clippings, andother media files. Examples of a multi-media digital file include avideo recording of a contributor telling a story about her experience.FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary setup for recording an interview sessionof a contributor.

In referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary system 100 is set up to record aninterview session of a contributor 120. The system 100 may include abackground screen, lighting equipment and one or more cameras or visualrecording devices, such as camera 110, similarly set up as aprofessional recording studio. In some applications of the exemplarymulti-media interactive story-telling system, one or more contributor'scontent database can be made available commercially and the contentdatabase includes professionally made video recordings. In someapplications of the exemplary multi-media interactive story-tellingsystem, a contributor may use the story-telling system for personal useor for use by friends and family. Instead of the camera 110 embodimentof FIG. 1, the contributor may simply use a mobile device, e.g., smartphones, tablets, etc., to record their life stories and build their owncontent database. In general, the exemplary system 100, the mobiledevice, and any other devices used to capture the contributor's story,are referred to as an intake device. An intake device is configured torecord one or more interview sessions in which a contributor createsstories for a ContributorFile database.

A contributor who wishes to contribute her stories and build up herContributorFile database can enter the multi-media interactivestory-telling system through a contributor user interface. An example ofthe contributor user interface and how it is used is shown in FIGS.5A-5C. The example is described in conjunction with using the system ona smartphone or tablet, but it could be used with a desktop computer,studio implementation, and the like. FIG. 5A illustrates the initialinteraction of a contributor with the system. The camera is in theso-called “selfie” mode so that the contributor can see herself onscreen while making a recording and creating a ContributerFile. Thesystem includes a text area 502 overlaying the screen region 501. Thetext region provides instructions and questions to the contributorduring the making of a ContributorFile. In FIG. 5A the system instructsthe contributor to press record and look into the camera for sevenseconds. This will give a rest, or listening, pose that may be usedduring a conversation with a questioner.

FIG. 5B shows the system instructing the contributor to make a statement(e.g. “Hello”) that can be used as a response or filler segment asappropriate. After any activity by the contributor on the system, FIG.5C illustrates that the contributor has the choice to keep or discardthe recording and try again.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating the generation of aContributorFile by a contributor in an embodiment of the system. In oneembodiment, at step 801, the contributor user interface of FIG. 5presents a list of queries to the contributor. The queries may bepresented one at a time to the contributor. The contributor records aresponse to the query at step 802. After recording the response, thecontributor is presented with options for the response at step 803. Thecontributor may be asked at step 803 to confirm the response, re-record,edit, or re-do the response. (e.g. Keep/Discard of FIG. 5C).

At decision block 804, it is determined if the response is confirmed. Ifnot, the system returns to step 802. If the response is confirmed, thesystem proceeds to decision block 805. When the contributor hasconfirmed the response, the system may then ask the contributor if thereare any media files available to augment the response, e.g. photographs,videos, audio files, text files, and the like. If the contributorselects media files at decision block 805, the contributor can use theinterface at step 806 to retrieve the appropriate media files andidentify them as being associated with the response. One, some, or allof the media files may be associated with one or more responses asdetermined by the contributor at step 807. If there are no media filesat decision block 805, or after the media files have been associatedwith the query at step 807, the system returns to step 802 to record anew response.

During a recording session, a contributor may structure her narrationaccording to a script. The script may comprise a list of questions thatare carefully crafted for a particular scenario, life story, or subjectmatter. Multiple scripts may be pre-defined and stored. Users may beallowed to create their own scripts and follow the pre-generated scriptsduring a recording session. Scripts can be created to address aparticular experience, e.g., childhood, favoritefood/restaurant/vacation spot, faith/belief/spirituality, etc. Scriptscan also be created to cover a subject domain such as classical music,tennis, chemistry or a contributor's opinion on politics, economics,climate, etc. Using this script, the contributor can record his answerto each of the questions listed in the script. An interview session mayinclude the contributor's answers to all the questions listed in thescript. In one embodiment, the questions are displayed in front thecontributor as a prompt. The questions may be displayed in a sequence orin one single list. The contributor may also add questions that they maywish to answer within the subject category. In one embodiment, therecording may be divided into multiple segments. Each segment mayinclude the contributor's answer to a single question or a group ofsimilar questions. The segments may be made by adding markers to therecorded interview sessions. In another embodiment, the segments may bemade into single files with each single file tagged with separatemetadata.

In one embodiment, a script is comprised or a plurality of categories,with each category including a plurality of questions related to thatcategory. FIGS. 7A-7C illustrate examples of a script interface in anembodiment of the system. FIG. 7A illustrates several categories in anembodiment of the system, including “The Basics”, “My Life”, “FunFacts”, and the like. These categories may be provided to all users inan embodiment of the system. Each category includes an indicator of thetotal number of questions in the category as well as an indication tothe user of how many questions have already been answered in eachcategory. For example, FIG. 7A shows that 4 of 15 questions in TheBasics have been answered and that for many categories, no questionshave been answered. The contributor is free to move between categoriesand questions within the category at will, so the contributor candetermine on their own how best to build the ContributorFile. Thecontributor is not required to answer all questions and categories, buta richer experience is provided if they do.

The system contemplates the ability of the contributor to have their ownquestions via a “Custom” category. When chosen, the contributor candefine any number of questions that are then added to the system, withthe system tracking how many have been completed.

FIG. 7B illustrates an example of the scripting interface when one ofthe categories has been selected, e.g. “The Basics”. The display 501shows the questions in the category (scrolling may be required to seeall questions) and can include an indicator of questions that have beenanswered. A contributor is always free to re-record their answers to anyquestions simply by selecting a previously answered question.

The system also includes machine learning and artificial intelligence toprovide dynamic questions that, although not part of the standardscripting, will elicit information that will be helpful in providing arich experience during interaction with a questioner. FIG. 7Cillustrates some of the questions that may be dynamically generatedbased on answers given by the contributor. The system will parse theanswer given by the contributor and look for missing information, suchas when a pronoun is used in an answer. The system, using the NLPclassifier for example, which may contain a machine learning module orAI module, will send a query to the contributor after the contributorhas accepted their answer, to ask for identification (e.g. Who is“she”?). The system may also, when appropriate, ask the contributor fortemporal related information, location information, and the like, basedon parsing the answers provided by the contributor.

In one embodiment, the contributor can review, trim, filter and add tothe recording after the interview session, such as at step 803. Once thecontributor is satisfied with the recordings, they approve therecordings at 804 and submit the recordings to their ContributorFiledatabase. The saved recordings can be edited, deleted, or replaced atany time. The contributor may mark a recording as private and thus itcan only be seen by the contributor. A recording can also be marked forgroup playback for an identified group of users. A recording can also bemade public for anyone to search, retrieve and review.

The contributor can also record a session in which she is in listeningpose for some duration of time, and some sessions in which she isspeaking pleasantries, such as “Hello,” “Goodbye,” and “Thank you!”These filler segments can be stored and used later to fill pauses orgaps between two recording sessions.

Once submitted to the contributor's ContributorFile database, the mediasegments are automatically saved or rendered onto a storage device. Asaved media segment in a ContributorFile database may be tagged by theoriginal question that was answered by the contributor in the mediasegment. In addition, audio in the media segment may be transcribed intotext and entered into the ContributorFile database along with theoriginal question as metadata. Tagging, transcribing, and metadatacreation can be made to be automatic in the multi-media interactivestory-telling system.

As noted above with regard to steps, 805, 806, and 807, the contributormay also able to contribute additional media files such as photos oraudio clippings. In one embodiment, the contributor is invited to addaudio prompts, referred herein as “vox-tagging.” A vox-tag is an audiofile associated with a piece of data that is transcribed and convertedinto metadata. This vox-tag provides additional metadata capturing timeand place to the photos/media files added by the contributor. Forexample, when a contributor is telling the story of her family vacationin Italy and she wants to include a photo taken during that vacationinto the ContributorFile database, she adds an audio prompt to thephoto, in which she states: “This is me with my husband Rick and ourkids Jane and John in Rome at the Colosseum in 2018. It was the bestvacation ever. We are going back next year and will definitely stay inthe Hilton again.” This audio clipping is then transcribed and thetranscription is stored as metadata in the ContributorFile database, tofacilitate retrieval. The metadata may include data such as “Rome” and“17 Mar. 2018” captured by the intake device along with informationextracted from the transcript, such as who is in the picture (her, herhusband and her two kids), her opinion about the vacation (“best ever”),and her plan to return and stay in the Hilton again. Beside photos, acontributor can also add audio clippings, documents, another video madeby herself or a video borrowed from any other source, links to externalsources, and data files. Examples of data files may include a DNAprofile, birth certificate, marriage certificate or any otherdocuments/files the contributor wishes to share.

In one embodiment, the contributor can record her stories without theaid of a structured script. In one embodiment, the contributor cancontribute to her ContributorFile database through video blogging,keeping a daily journal, delivering a lecture, speech, or presentation.In one embodiment, the contributor can also test or review herContributorFile database, for example, by acting as an inquirer. Thecontributor can also refine the metadata by, for example, addingadditional keywords or revising the existing tags, to make searches byother inquirers more accurate.

In one embodiment, the contributor can record prompts and queues for theinquirer, to suggest further narrative exploration. For example, thecontributor can ask “Would you like to hear more about my trip?” or“Would you like to see a picture of my hotel?” or the like.

Inquirer Operation

An inquirer enters the multi-media interactive story-telling systemthrough an inquirer user interface. FIGS. 6A-6C illustrate an exemplaryinquirer user interface. When the inquirer wishes to engage in aconversation with a particular contributor, the inquirer can use theinquirer user interface to find this particular contributor. In oneembodiment, the inquirer can search for a group of contributors—e.g.,Gulf War veterans—a type of experience—e.g., concussion—a keyword, aplace, etc., or any combination of the categories listed.

FIG. 6A illustrates an interface on a mobile device when a questionerhas selected a contributor. The contributor's image is shown in display501 and the questioner is instructed to press and hold the record buttonto present a query to the contributor. The system performs speech totext translation and presents the question in text form to thequestioner in FIG. 6B. The system then performs the methods described inFIGS. 3 and 9 to determine the correct video segment of the contributorto play back to the questioner. In some cases, the system may suggest“conversation starters” to the questioner as in FIG. 6C. Selecting thatpresents a plurality of questions that the questioner can simply selectby touching or may speak to the system.

When the interactive story-telling system locates the ContributorFile orContributorFiles the inquirer is looking for, it retrieves themulti-media digital files associated with the ContributorFile orContributorFiles and plays it for the inquirer. In one embodiment, thesystem may retrieve a recording of the contributor in a listening posewhen such a response is need, for example, when the interactivestory-telling session begins. In one embodiment, the interaction systemof FIG. 6 provides a list of suggested questions to start theconversation. These suggestions could be a sampling of questions ortopics from the script (FIGS. 7A-7C). The questions may be ranked bypopularity or relevance to the common conversation.

FIG. 2 illustrates a multi-media interactive story-telling session 200.The inquirer 210 is engaged in a natural conversation with a contributor220 of her choosing. In one embodiment, the contributor 220 appears in adigital recording played on an output device 230. The session may startwith the contributor 220 in a listening pose. The inquirer 210 thenposes a question to the contributor 220. The question may be input bythe inquirer as text or through a microphone. The multi-mediainteractive story-telling system may be configured with speechrecognition capability and the audio question is converted into a textquery that is used to search the ContributorFile database of themulti-media interactive story-telling system. When the best matchingContributorFile is found, the digital recording is retrieved and playedon the output device 230. The best matching ContributorFile shouldprovide an appropriate answer to the question posed by the inquirer. Theinquirer can pose further questions as follow-up. A second digitalrecording may be retrieved and played to answer the inquirer's follow-upquestion. In between the first digital recording and the second digitalrecording, a filler segment may be played to fill in the gap when theinquirer is typing or voicing her follow-up question. In a fillersegment, the contributor may be seen in a listening pose.

In one embodiment, the output device 230 may be a video screen, mobiledevice, smartphone, tablet, and the like. In one embodiment, thecontributor may be recorded and displayed as a hologram, adding to therealism of the contributor/inquirer interaction.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary process of playing amulti-media ContributorFile. The method in FIG. 3 comprises thefollowing steps. In step 310, a selection of the contributor is receivedfrom the user. In step 320, a first listening segment of the contributoris retrieved and played. The first listening segment features thecontributor in a listening pose waiting for a query from the user. Instep 330, the user enters a query that is addressed to the contributor.The query is received and processed. In Step 340, based on the query, arecording segment featuring the candidate is identified. The recordingsegment provides an appropriate answer to the query. The answer relatesto the contributor's person experience or opinion. The identifiedrecording segment is then retrieved and played to the user in step 350.The system then loops back to step 320, a listening pose for thecontributor, and waits for another query from the user.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram illustrating the processing step of 330 and theidentifying step of step 340 of FIG. 3. At step 901, the system receivesa query from an inquirer. As noted above, the query may be spoken,typed, or selected from a menu. At step 902 the query is converted totext (using speech-to-text if the query was spoken) and parsed for thewords in the query.

At decision block 903 the system compares the query to the list ofquestions presented to the contributor. By first comparing the query tothe scripted questions, the system can operate more quickly than bysearching against the recorded segments. If there is a match of thequery to the original question at step 903, the system can retrieve theassociated segment at step 907 and play it back for the inquirer.

If there is no match of the query with a scripted question at step 903,the system performs additional comparisons of the query. In oneembodiment, the system may compare to all other questions at step 904and generate match scores (degree of similarity) of the query to theknown questions. The system can then rank the matches by score value atstep 905. At decision block 906 it is determined if the score is above arequired matching threshold. If so, the system can retrieve the segmentassociated with that highest ranking query at step 907. If not, thesystem requests another query from the inquirer at step 908.

In one embodiment, the system compares the query to metadata associatedwith each recorded segment and determines possible matches at step 904.The matches are scored and ranked at step 905 and, if the highest scoreis above a threshold at step 906, that segment is retrieved andpresented to the user at step 907.

Machine Learning

In the multi-media interactive story-telling system, identifying arecording segment that provides an appropriate answer to the question orquery posed by the user is improved by machine-learning algorithms.Machine-learning algorithms are employed to better identify in theContributorFile database a recording segment that provides the mostappropriate answer to the query. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system relies on artificial intelligence to scale acrossmultiple ContributorFile databases or multiple users to train and tunethe system, and learn from one contributor's ContributorFile and applythe learning to another. The machine-learning algorithms used in thepresent story-telling system transcribes, consolidates, and analyzesresponses across multiple users to train a set of natural languageclassifiers that match new questions to responses within the database.As the size of the databases increases and the number ofusers/contributors increases, the story-telling system usesmachine-learning to continuously improve data retrieval performance.

The story-telling system learns from the different answers provided bydifferent contributors to the same question. The system can analyze theresponse to identify commonality and differences. The system can alsoanalyze the frequency of words, people, places, objects, and sentencestructure within the subset of responses for the purpose of learning: toidentify new potential connections/links between recording segments andqueries.

The story-telling system can learn to improve questions as the systemadds more queries submitted by inquirers. The system can compare newquestions with existing questions to identify similar wording andsimilar responses.

The story-telling system can also learn from interactions betweeninquirers and contributors' digital representative. Each conversationbetween an inquirer and a contributor is treated as AI training data forthe story-telling system. Variations in wording and phrasing and newvocabulary are continuously identified and applied to improve thesystem's performance.

The system also benefits from existing technologies such as automaticspeech recognition, face recognition, object identification, etc. Thesystem integrates those existing technologies into its intelligentsearch. The system also caches answers to commonly asked questions toexpedite inquiries. With caching and AI-backed search process, themulti-media interactive story-telling system creates the appearance of acontinuous and natural conversation between the inquirer and thecontributor who appears digitally in the recording segments. Theinquirer can ask questions or input inquiries in a real-time fashion asif it were a live conversation. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system provides a seamless engagement between the inquirerand the contributor. The conversation maintains visual, semantic andlogical continuity throughout the engagement. When there are naturalpauses or gaps in the flow of conversation, the system plays fillersegments to maintain continuity.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary multi-mediainteractive story-telling system 400. In FIG. 4, the interactivestory-telling system comprises an intake device 410, storage devices420, and an interactive device 430. The intake device 410 is configuredto record one or more interview sessions of a contributor narratingstories about his or her personal stories or opinions. The storagedevices 420 are used to store the interview sessions recorded by theintake device 410. The interactive device 430 is configured to retrieveand play an interview session stored on the storage devices 410 inresponse to a query from a user. In the present disclosure, thedifferent devices, 410, 420, and 430 may refer to any computing devicesor components used in a computing device. For example, the devices 410,420, and 430 may a mobile device, a personal computer, a desktopcomputer, a tablet, or a smart phone. The devices may includeinput/output devices, memories or disks, and/or processors or circuitsprogrammed to perform general or specific computing tasks orfunctionality.

The multi-media interactive story-telling system can be implemented andrun as a mobile device application, desktop application or stand-alonecommercial product. The system can run locally on a local machine or runas distributed on different machines. The system can be internet basedin which the storage devices of the system are cloud-based storage.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram of an intake device 410 in an embodiment ofthe system. The system takes audiovisual input via the recording deviceat block 1100. This data is sent to a natural language processor (NLP)classifier 1110 where the text is generated via speech to text analysisand meta data is associated with the text file. The audiovisual data issent to audiovisual storage 1120 and the clip text and associatedmetadata is sent to clip text storage 1130.

Example Computer Environment

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary a system 1000 that may implement thesystem. The electronic system 1000 of some embodiments may be a mobileapparatus. The electronic system includes various types of machinereadable media and interfaces. The electronic system includes a bus1005, processor(s) 1010, read only memory (ROM) 1015, input device(s)1020, random access memory (RAM) 1025, output device(s) 1030, a networkcomponent 1035, and a permanent storage device 1040.

The bus 1005 communicatively connects the internal devices and/orcomponents of the electronic system. For instance, the bus 1005communicatively connects the processor(s) 1010 with the ROM 1015, theRAM 1025, and the permanent storage 1040. The processor(s) 1010 retrieveinstructions from the memory units to execute processes of theinvention.

The processor(s) 1010 may be implemented with one or moregeneral-purpose and/or special-purpose processors. Examples includemicroprocessors, microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitrythat can execute software. Alternatively, or in addition to the one ormore general-purpose and/or special-purpose processors, the processormay be implemented with dedicated hardware such as, by way of example,one or more FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), PLDs (ProgrammableLogic Device), controllers, state machines, gated logic, discretehardware components, or any other suitable circuitry, or any combinationof circuits.

Many of the above-described features and applications are implemented assoftware processes of a computer programming product. The processes arespecified as a set of instructions recorded on a machine readablestorage medium (also referred to as machine readable medium). When theseinstructions are executed by one or more of the processor(s) 1010, theycause the processor(s) 1010 to perform the actions indicated in theinstructions.

Furthermore, software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions,data, or any combination thereof, whether referred to as software,firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, orotherwise. The software may be stored or transmitted over as one or moreinstructions or code on a machine-readable medium. Machine-readablemedia include both computer storage media and communication mediaincluding any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer programfrom one place to another. A storage medium may be any available mediumthat can be accessed by the processor(s) 1010. By way of example, andnot limitation, such machine-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a processor. Also, any connectionis properly termed a machine-readable medium. For example, if thesoftware is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote sourceusing a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digitalsubscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared (IR),radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twistedpair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, asused herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects machine-readable media maycomprise non-transitory machine-readable media (e.g., tangible media).In addition, for other aspects machine-readable media may comprisetransitory machine-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of machine-readablemedia.

Also, in some embodiments, multiple software inventions can beimplemented as sub-parts of a larger program while remaining distinctsoftware inventions. In some embodiments, multiple software inventionscan also be implemented as separate programs. Any combination ofseparate programs that together implement a software invention describedhere is within the scope of the invention. In some embodiments, thesoftware programs, when installed to operate on one or more electronicsystems 1000, define one or more specific machine implementations thatexecute and perform the operations of the software programs.

The ROM 1015 stores static instructions needed by the processor(s) 1010and other components of the electronic system. The ROM may store theinstructions necessary for the processor(s) 1010 to execute theprocesses provided by the system. The permanent storage 1040 is anon-volatile memory that stores instructions and data when theelectronic system 1000 is on or off. The permanent storage 1040 is aread/write memory device, such as a hard disk or a flash drive. Storagemedia may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. Byway of example, the ROM could also be EEPROM, CD-ROM or other opticaldisk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired programcode in the form of instructions or data structures and that can beaccessed by a computer.

The RAM 1025 is a volatile read/write memory. The RAM 1025 storesinstructions needed by the processor(s) 1010 at runtime, the RAM 1025may also store the real-time video or still images acquired by thesystem. The bus 1005 also connects input and output devices 1020 and1030. The input devices enable the user to communicate information andselect commands to the electronic system. The input devices 1020 may bea keypad, image capture apparatus, or a touch screen display capable ofreceiving touch interactions. The output device(s) 1030 display imagesgenerated by the electronic system. The output devices may includeprinters or display devices such as monitors.

The bus 1005 also couples the electronic system to a network 1035. Theelectronic system may be part of a local area network (LAN), a wide areanetwork (WAN), the Internet, or an Intranet by using a networkinterface. The electronic system may also be a mobile apparatus that isconnected to a mobile data network supplied by a wireless carrier. Suchnetworks may include 3G, HSPA, EVDO, and/or LTE.

It is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in theprocesses disclosed is an illustration of exemplary approaches. Basedupon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order orhierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged. Further, somesteps may be combined or omitted. The accompanying method claims presentelements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not meant to belimited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The various aspects of this disclosure are provided to enable one ofordinary skill in the art to practice the present invention. Variousmodifications to exemplary embodiments presented throughout thisdisclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and theconcepts disclosed herein may be extended to other apparatuses, devices,or processes. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to thevarious aspects of this disclosure, but are to be accorded the fullscope consistent with the language of the claims. All structural andfunctional equivalents to the various components of the exemplaryembodiments described throughout this disclosure that are known or latercome to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expresslyincorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed bythe claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to bededicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure isexplicitly recited in the claims. No claim element is to be construedunder the provisions of 35 U.S.C. § 18(f) unless the element isexpressly recited using the phrase “means for” or, in the case of amethod claim, the element is recited using the phrase “step for.”

The systems and methods disclosed herein can be adapted for manydifferent applications. A type of applications that are particularsuitable for adaptation of the systems and methods disclosed herein arethose in which interpersonal communication is an essential component.Exemplary applications include application for dating services,employment services (nanny, nurses, etc.), sales (cars, furniture,etc.), educational services, and personal or societal history/heritagepreservation.

Although the disclosure is illustrated and described herein withreference to specific examples, the disclosure is not intended to belimited to the details shown. Rather, various modifications may be madein the details within the scope and range of equivalents of the claimsand without departing from the disclosure.

What is claimed is:
 1. A multi-media interactive story-telling system,said system comprising: an intake device, said intake device configuredto record one or more interview sessions in which one or morecontributors create interactive stories by answering questions definedin a script; storage devices for storing the one or more recordedinterview sessions of the one or more contributor; an interactive deviceconfigured to retrieve and play a recorded session of a contributorstored on the storage devices in response to a query from a user,wherein the query is interpreted as being directed to an interactivestory of a contributor and the recorded session retrieved by theinteractive device correlates to the interactive story of thecontributor to which the query is directed; comparing the query to aplurality of existing queries and using machine learning to identifysimilar wording and similar responses, using the machine learning tomatch the query to retrieve and play the recorded session; and whereinthe interactive device uses a machine learning algorithm to predict afollow-up query that is most likely to follow the query and to retrieveand cache a predicted recorded session corresponding to a response tothe follow-up query during the play of the recorded session, wherein themachine learning algorithm is trained on past patterns of inquiries. 2.The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 1, whereinimprovement of the correlation between the recorded session retrieved bythe interactive device and a life story of the one or more contributorsto which the query is directed is achieved through machine learning. 3.The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 1, wherein therecorded interview sessions are edited by the one or more contributorsbefore being committed to the storage devices.
 4. The multi-mediainteractive story-telling system of claim 1, wherein the recordedinterview sessions can be edited after being committed to the storagedevices.
 5. The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 1,wherein the recorded interview sessions are augmented by one or moreauxiliary files before being committed to the storage device, andwherein the one or more auxiliary files include photos, documents ormedia files.
 6. The multi-media interactive story-telling system ofclaim 1, wherein the one or more recorded interview sessions aretranscribed and one or more keywords are extracted from the transcriptsof the one or more transcribed interview sessions for cataloguing andretrieving.
 7. The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim6, wherein the transcripts are stored as metadata of the one or moretranscribed interview sessions.
 8. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system of claim 6, wherein the transcripts of the one ormore transcribed interview sessions are stored in a natural languagedatabase.
 9. The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim6, wherein the one or more keywords are stored as metadata of the one ormore interview sessions, and wherein the metadata further includetimestamps and location data automatically retained by the intake deviceduring the one or more interview sessions and information manually inputby the contributors.
 10. The multi-media interactive story-tellingsystem of claim 6, wherein the one or more recorded interview sessionsare automatically transcribed by speech-to-text translation.
 11. Themulti-media interactive story-telling system of claim 1, wherein the oneor more contributors create life stories based on pre-defined or bespokescripts, and wherein the scripts are drafted to address a life story, apersonal experience, an opinion or a subject domain familiar to one ofthe contributors.
 12. The multi-media interactive story-telling systemof claim 11, wherein different scripts are created for differentapplications of the multi-media interactive story-telling system. 13.The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 11, whereinthe different applications of the multi-media interactive story-tellingsystem include dating services, educational programs, family legacy,historic documentary, medical experiences, community stories, executivehiring, FAQ services, customers services, training services mentoringservices, financial advice, advice lines, archival services and otherservices which benefit from interactive question and answers.
 14. Themulti-media interactive story-telling system of claim 11, wherein thescripts comprise questions to be answered by the one or morecontributors during the interview sessions, and wherein the intakedevice is configured to present follow-up questions based on answersfrom the one or more contributors.
 15. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system of claim 1, wherein the one or more recordedsessions also include filler segments in which the one or morecontributors are speaking pleasantries or in a listening pose.
 16. Themulti-media interactive story-telling system of claim 12, wherein afiller segment in which the one or more contributors are speakingpleasantries is retrieved by the interactive device for playing back inresponse to a query from the user or when a pleasantry from the user isasked.
 17. The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 15,wherein a filler segment of the contributor in a listening pose is usedin between queries of the user.
 18. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system of claim 5, wherein the interactive device isfurther configured to retrieve and play one or more of the auxiliaryfiles as a response to a query or along with the first recorded sessionbeing retrieved by the interactive device.
 19. The multi-mediainteractive story-telling system of claim 18, wherein a multi-media fileis retrieved from a local device, over a network, or from the internet.20. The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 19,wherein the multi-media file and the recorded sessions along with theone or more auxiliary files are retrieved as a response to a query. 21.The multi-media interactive story-telling system of claim 1, wherein theone or more recorded interview sessions are divided into multiplesegments using markers and wherein separate metadata are created foreach segment.
 22. The multi-media interactive story-telling system ofclaim 1, wherein the storage devices are locally connected storagehardware or cloud-based storage devices.
 23. The multi-media interactivestory-telling system of claim 1, wherein the interactive device isconfigured to cache recorded sessions that correspond to commonly askedqueries.
 24. A multi-media interactive story-telling system, said systemcomprising: an interview intake device for a multi-media story-tellingsystem, said interview intake device comprising: a display device fordisplaying questions defined in a script; recording devices forrecording one or more interview sessions in which one or morecontributors answer the questions displayed on the display device;wherein the one or more contributors are presented with an initialrecorded interview session and to review, trim, filter, or add to theinitial recorded interview session; processors configured to generatemetadata for the one or more recorded interview sessions for cataloguingand retrieval; processors to add additional media files and vox-tags totrigger display of the additional media files; and wherein the one ormore recorded interview sessions are automatically transcribed andtranscripts are used as part of metadata of the one or more interviewsessions; and an interactive device comprising one or more processors:to compare a query from a user to a plurality of existing queries and touse machine learning to identify similar wording and similar responses;to use the machine learning to match the query to retrieve and play therecorded session; and wherein the interactive device uses a machinelearning algorithm to predict a follow-up query that is most likely tofollow the query and to retrieve and cache a predicted recorded sessioncorresponding to a response to the follow-up query during the play ofthe recorded session, wherein the machine learning algorithm is trainedon past patterns of inquiries.
 25. The interview intake device of claim24, wherein the metadata of the one or more interview sessions compriseone or more keywords extracted from the transcripts, timestamps andother data automatically processed by the processors during the one ormore interview sessions, and wherein the metadata further compriseinformation manually input by the contributors.
 26. The interview intakedevice of claim 24, wherein the processors are further configured togenerate follow-up questions.
 27. The interview intake device of claim24, wherein different scripts are prepared for different applications ofthe multi-media story-telling system.
 28. The interview intake device ofclaim 24, wherein the interview intake device is further configured torecord filler segments in which the contributors are speakingpleasantries or in a listening pose.
 29. The interview intake device ofclaim 24, wherein the processors are configured to combine a recordedinterview session with the transcript, auxiliary files, and metadatainto a single story file.
 30. A multi-media interactive device, saidmulti-media interactive device comprising: an input device that featuresa user interface, said input device configured to receive a query from auser; an output device for playing back recorded interview sessions,wherein said interview sessions are recorded by one or more contributorsand wherein in each interview session the one or more contributorsanswer a question defined in a script; processors configured to retrievea recorded interview session in response to the query, wherein in therecorded interview session the answer from the one or more contributorscorrelates to the query; comparing the query to a plurality of existingqueries and using machine learning to identify similar wording andsimilar responses; using the machine learning to match the query toretrieve and play the answer; and wherein the interactive device uses amachine learning algorithm to predict a most-likely follow-up queryfollowing the query and to retrieve and cache a predicted answer to thefollow-up query during a playback of the answer from the recordedinterview session, wherein the machine learning algorithm is trained onpast patterns of inquiries.
 31. The multi-media interactive device ofclaim 30, wherein the processors are configured to retrieve the recordedinterview session in which the question the one or more contributorsanswer matches the query.
 32. The multi-media interactive device ofclaim 30, wherein a list of candidate contributors is presented in theuser interface on the input device for the user to select onecontributor from the list, and wherein only interview sessions featuringthe selected contributor are retrieved and played back.
 33. Themulti-media interactive device of claim 32, wherein the input device isa touch-screen, a microphone, a smart glass, or a virtual assistantdevice.
 34. The multi-media interactive device of claim 32, wherein thelist of candidate contributors is generated based on common interestsbetween the user and each candidate contributor.
 35. The multi-mediainteractive device of claim 32, wherein the list of candidatecontributors is generated based on one or more of the following factors:popularity, subject domain, keywords, talents, experience, and names.36. The multi-media interactive device of claim 32, wherein the list ofcandidate contributors is generated based on the emotion of the userdetected by the multi-media interactive device.
 37. The multi-mediainteractive device of claim 30, wherein the processors are configured toretrieve an auxiliary file along with the interview session for playingback.
 38. A method of hosting an interactive story-telling conversationbetween a user and a contributor selected by the user, comprising:receiving from the user a selection of the contributor; retrieving afirst filler recording segment of the contributor, wherein the fillersegment features the contributor speaking a pleasantry; processing aquery from the user, wherein the query is addressed to the contributor;comparing the query to a plurality of existing queries and using machinelearning for matching the query and for identifying a recording segmentfeaturing the contributor, wherein the recording segment provides anappropriate answer to the query, and wherein the answer is related tothe contributor's personal experience or opinion; retrieving and playingthe identified recording segment to the user; using a machine learningalgorithm to predict a follow-up query that is most likely to follow thequery and to retrieve and cache a predicted recording segmentcorresponding to a response to the follow-up query during the play ofthe identified recording segment, wherein the machine learning algorithmis trained on past patterns of inquiries; if the user does not pose afollow-up query, playing a second filler segment featuring thecontributor in a listening pose; and if the user poses the predictedfollow-up query, processing the follow-up query to identify, retrievethe cached predicted recording segment, and play the cached predictedrecording segment that provides an appropriate answer to the follow-upquery.
 39. The method of claim 38, wherein, in the retrieved recordingsegment, the contributor also mentions one or more media files that aredisplayed along with the retrieved recording segment.